Month: December 2011

Welcome to our highlights version of the latest Thinking with Somebody Else’s Head program, A Study of the Divine. A perfect answer to the annual debate about how we can be true to the spirit of Christmas. Here, in the midst of the running about, a reminder of that true spirit.

Another Christmas season is upon us, and with it the annual debate in the hearts of the pensive: how to tap in to the true spirit of the time and not just get caught up in the shopping and seasonal festivities? This latter position firmly in the lead judging by the mad scramble for mall parking and the expanded line-ups at liquor store checkouts.

And since there is so much attention given in all the normal channels to this economic and convivial perspective, let me fill a gap by taking a stand for the true spirit of Christmas.

For the story, rich in lore and wonder and marvellous mystery, is a beautiful one that, even though largely ignored 11 1/2 months of the year, finally and necessarily demands to be heard and reflected upon. It is a time when we who feel this can venture forth our thoughts and feelings about this most sacred of times, and contemplate the mystical story that lies at the base of our December celebrations.

“Get a job!” was the sarcastic advice hurled at the hippies back when I was a kid. Now the 1% are throwing out the same phrase at the protestors in the Occupy Movement.

Well, for sure work is necessary for the liberation of the people … just not the kind of work the 1% are talking about. The Trilogical enterprises developed by Analytical Trilogy in the 1980s in New York City are dynamic solutions to the economic crisis.

Our Thinking with Somebody Else’s Head radio program this week is Working for Ourselves.

“Get a job!” was a common insult hurled at the hippies back when I was a kid. I remember a few of them homesteading in the woods off the dirt road to my favorite swimming hole on Vancouver Island. I remember the homegrown vegetable gardens and the hastily assembled log cabins and the pungent odor of their strange cigarettes.

I wouldn’t pay much attention if I was alone beyond noticing you could barely see their eyes under all that head and facial hair. But if my father was with me … well, then I’d hear a few lectures on the long, windy drive back home. The values of work, the satisfaction of a job well done, the “I had to walk 5 miles to school – both ways” speech that all parents at that time seemed to pull out of their back pockets at times like these.

I appreciated my father’s point actually … especially as I got older. But I sympathized with the rebels, too.

But now I’m noticing the same “Get a job!” catchphrase going out from Wall St. to all the OWS occupiers. For sure, work is needed for the liberation of the people. But not the work the 1% is thinking we need.

I was thinking that we’re all pretty busy these days, and maybe you feel like there’s not enough time to listen to a full Podcast. So … here’s a highlights version. Every week, I’ll take one of the key points from our full program, and publish here for you who are busy. It’s perfect for sending to your contact list, posting on your Facebook page, spreading out through your social media. Join us in getting the word out about Norberto Keppe’s essential and important work!

There was a recent Occupy placard held aloft by a protester that caught my eye: “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” it said. And I thought, that’s captured one of the key problems in our world today. There is so much corporate ownership of the media that it seems pretty inevitable that they would be pretty firmly on the side of the status quo.

This is not to denigrate the efforts of responsible and courageous journalists the world over, of course, who are fighting to expose the corruption of the systems where they live, but in most cases, our media only report news that favors those in power.

It’s high time we held our media to some higher standards than just giving us what they think we want. They have a responsibility, after all, to defend the people’s interests, and we are remiss in not demanding that of them.

So … occupy the media is what we say. And what we’ll explore on our Thinking with Somebody Else’s Head program today.

One of the things that gives me solace when looking at all the really horrible manipulation and cruelty of our modern day society is that the perpetrators of these evil deeds will have their comeuppance.

How all that works is the subject of our show today. Through near death experiences, everyday guilt feelings and spiritual teachings, we can see that our lives have a purpose, and that purpose cannot be fulfilled unless we’re prepared to live from a commitment to goodness, truth and beauty. And in our inverted world of flexible morals where good is relative and evil depends on the circumstances that’s a challenge.

But evil is still evil and good is still good, and it all plays out inside us every time we do something. For that matter, there is much inside us that we don’t have contact with as much as we should, and I hope our program today will fix that a little.